• dinckel@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I genuinely don’t understand how we, as a society, reached a point where delusional businessmen like this exist. What can he possible do, to justify earning this much money, while his company is literally failing in real time

    • andyburke@fedia.io
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      8 months ago

      Unfettered capitalism.

      Time to tax the corporations and the wealthy for their fair share again.

      Want to solve almost all our problems? Redistribute wealth from the 1% who spend it on yachts to the rest of us to spend on healthcare, wages, etc.

      Small business owner making 6 figures a year? I am not talking about you.

      Spez, making 9 figures? That is who I am talking about and where the problem lies.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Entitlement. He got better because he comes from a well to do family and all the privileges that brings. He believes he deserves it, plain and simple.

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      8 months ago

      The reality of his compensation package is a lot more nuanced. The 9 figure number is eye popping, but he’s being paid less than $2 million over 2023-2024, and almost all of the rest is contingent upon a successful IPO and then reaching a set of (incredibly unrealistic) stock valuation benchmarks. Reddit’s stock has to hit something like $45/share for him to see 8 figures and $90/share for him to realize the full amount.

      I’m in no way defending this pay package or his shitty behavior, just pointing out that he’s not just getting handed $200 million outright

      • db2@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        but he’s being paid less than $2 million over 2023-2024

        Read that again. Someone making federal minimum wage would have to work 8 hours a day 5 days a week with no sick days and still wouldn’t make that much in like 130 years, which is well beyond even a generous human lifespan let alone the usable years of a lifespan.

        That federal minimum wage is grossly below what is needed just to survive is a different argument, except that it’s people like Steve that are responsible for the disparity between income and subsistence level.

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          8 months ago

          I read it when I wrote it, I’m comparing $2M to $200M here, not to minimum wage, and not defending anyone

          • db2@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            That’s the problem though, you’re comparing two ridiculous numbers for one person to make in a year and trying to convince us that one is less bad for some reason. Their both psychotic. And yes, you are in fact defending it as evidenced by you replying to defend it. Come on, man.

  • PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The best thing about his deeply fuckheaded comments is that it’s a perfect example of the sick way the ultra wealthy operate, presented in a way reddit users can absolutely understand.

    The act of building early reddit was a group effort. I have no idea how much Spez contributed to the concept, but he did code it – a task that realistically millions of people also would have been able to do.

    But a platform without users is nothing. It was the users creating content that truly built reddit and the unpaid moderators who stopped it collapsing under the weight of spam and extremism.

    While that was happening, spez shit the bed over and over again. He sold out too early. He openly advocated platforming extremists. He got called out for the bigotry he tolerated in his company. He alienated his most important users so he could sell their content to AI companies.

    And now here we are. He makes an absurd amount of money, despite being shit at his job, despite being a clearly bad person and despite his accomplishments being ordinary. Meanwhile, the people he needs, who are critical to his business, are paid nothing.

    This is the same setup as Amazon, Walmart, Uber and a million other businesses, distilled down to its very essence.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Billionaires don’t earn their money. Nobody can earn that much because nobody is that valuable. The ultra wealthy only exist, because they stole from the people below them on the ladder. They stole their wages, benefits, pensions, unions, and pocketed the money. If you’re ultra rich, you did it by fucking over the people below you.

        • pigup@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          If we could, we would have already. We can’t really, and he is in a position to be as greedy as he can possibly imagine. $193M is in his pocket right? We all mad but who is gonna take it away? Appeals to decency are cute but a waste of time. He put himself in a position where he can sell things that he didn’t make nor that belong to him and it’s all legal and that’s reality.

          • Plopp@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Of course we could. We just don’t think it’s worth it because we’re not starving to death at large. We’re in the comfort zone still where it’s better to sit down and be mostly obedient.

    • trustnoone@lemmy.sdf.org
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      8 months ago

      he sold out too early

      I’m actually kind of interested in this point. Going public for many people is about the growth in the company. No one wants to put money in apple because its stocks are expensive. Its because they forsee it going up.

      But i thibk youre right he sold out too early. Peope are willing to invest because of the potential outcome of selling api data to ai companies. People are interested to hear the potential financial increase of api prices making more profit. People may be interested of the potential change of nfts or whatever to drive more money.

      But all of that has already happened, hes sold out all those items before the ipo. So i feel like a lot of people are like “what growth left is there?” And infact “is that growth negative going forward as users turn away or are hungry to jump ship if possible”

      Who knows though what will happen, maybe im entirely wrong.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Don’t worry, friends. As a mod of Ten Forward, Star Trek and Lemmy Shitpost, I would never expect a salary.

    I do accept bribes.

    • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      That seems a little reductive. I’ve never moderated anything, but I bet if I spent years building up a community I would also find it hard to just walk away.

      • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        You don’t have to walk away, you can migrate. This is more an issue of building your house on the king’s land. The mods that stayed should serve as a warning to the rest of us that building a Reddit community means that Reddit owns the community you created, and that as a moderator Reddit owns you.

        • capital@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Anyone who’s ever tried to get a friend group to change chat apps knows this isn’t simple.

          I imagine doing it with a few thousand people is even more difficult.

        • PrettyLights@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          You don’t have to walk away, you can migrate.

          We tried that with Lemmy and many great communities only have one or two people posting consistently.

          Most people don’t care about behind the scenes

          • Syrc@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            It depends, if mods were fully onboard and had a plan it definitely works. Just look at Piracy or Star Trek communities.

            • PrettyLights@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I just checked the Star Trek community on reddit and it’s still up with 753k members and 189 online. The Lemmy versions I can find are a fraction of that.

              The idea of Lemmy is great but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking big communities actually migrated.

  • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    How are mods landed gentry? I spent my time as a Reddit mod with Nazis trying to dox me and threaten me, before Reddit banned me for making fun of Nazis.

  • db2@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I think he’s the real reason the punchablefaces subreddit got neutered, because he’s sure got one.

  • Zacryon@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    Capitalism – in it’s current form, a system where some exploit others in order to make profit.

    • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I think you mean where rich people rigging the system exploit people who have to follow the rules.

      • Zacryon@feddit.de
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        8 months ago

        That’s also what I meant by capitalism “in it’s current form”. Yes. ^^

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    At the end of the day, the reddit mods had all the opportunities to once again, protest their working conditions and leave reddit today. But I see no evidence that an organized effort took place.

    It’s unfair, and spez isn’t thinking any further than the moment he can sell his comp and move on. But they have all the stakes in this matter and nothing is happening. I know there are efforts on reddit’s part to squelch the moderators, but at some point they have to make clear this isn’t going to work the way it is.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The CEO of the company I work at proudly tells us that his compensation is mostly stock, so if we’re not doing well as a company, he will not get paid.

    He thinks this will sound like he’s got skin in the game and is making some kind of sacrifice.

    What it actually tells me is that he is aligned to shareholders, not customers or staff. And that he cares about the stock price, which is not at all the same things as whether we are doing well as a company.

    • TheKMAP@lemmynsfw.com
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      8 months ago

      Ehhhhh

      Stock price is absolutely tied to the perceived performance and anticipated future performance of the company.

      The problem is that most departments of a company are profit centers and therefore there is a huge incentive to squeeze the most return (product features, sales, etc) from that investment (your salary). They will abuse you just hard enough so you don’t quit. Or they will abuse you endlessly because the churn is factored into it.

      The company doing well is only loosely tied to morale. Yes happier employees probably perform better but it’s not the best return on the investment.

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        You’re right that stock price is something.

        Companies serve three groups:

        1. customers
        2. staff
        3. shareholders

        Stock price measures #3. And one out of three is a pretty shitty overall score.

        Before someone tells me that shareholders are everything, and that this is capitalism, I understand your point but if any of 1, 2, or 3 stop participating, the company stops functioning. All three must be served. You just waved aside staff as a bag of feelings, but they literally do everything at the company.

          • scarabic@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Yeah yeah. You’re saying that corporate leaders don’t care about people, and we all know that. But the company has to offer staff something to come in and work, right? They get paid right? I’m not saying everyone needs to get desk massages and blow jobs. But there has to be something in it for the staff or there is no company. It sucks to work somewhere that the staff get bare minimum. But the best companies in the world offer a lot more than that, because talent is worth it.

    • the_seven_sins@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      The mods are working ‘for their community’. It’s just that that’s happening on a profit companys platform.

    • capital@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      What’s the origin of the pedo accusation?

      Edit: Is pedophile on the list of words we’re gonna make meaningless now?

  • AnAngryAlpaca@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    He gifted himself a ludicrous $193 million compensation package.

    Reddit, a 20-year-old company, has yet to turn a profit. In 2023, the platform lost a whopping $90.8 million.

    Can someone explain to me how reddit can make a loss, while he pays himself MORE than the loss? Does that not mean that reddit would have made a 113 Million profit before his $193 million compensation package? What kind of business-algebra-gymnastics is at work here?

    • nehal3m@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      It’s a calculation popularized by fintech bro’s in the late oughties.

      It’s called pulling an FYGM, a fuck you got mine, colloquially known as a rug pull.

    • sushibowl@feddit.nl
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      8 months ago

      Does that not mean that reddit would have made a 113 Million profit before his $193 million compensation package?

      No. His normal salary is around 300k a year. This $193 million figure was the presumed valuation of a stock/options package he received ahead of the IPO. It doesn’t cost the company anything to pay him in stock, so it doesn’t affect the profit/loss calculation.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        8 months ago

        Surely it costs $193 million to pay him in stock. That stock would otherwise have been sold for that amount to other people, and he’s getting it for nothing.

        • sushibowl@feddit.nl
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          8 months ago

          Because you’re exchanging stock worth $193 million for an equivalent amount of dollars, there’s technically no profit or loss involved in the transaction. In the same manner, when paying stock as a compensation, you secure services valued at $193 million for an amount of shares worth the same: the transaction is entirely equal. So you don’t make or lose any money by paying in stock.

          Of course, the trick is that the value of the CEO’s work for one year can be whatever he says. If your claim is that they could have gotten more value out of the stock had they sold it in the IPO, I think you are absolutely correct in that regard.

  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    This is the norm for any big business. The top dogs will be wildly paid even if the company is struggling. They’ll get a big fat payday even if they get kicked out (golden parachute). Hell, even the bosses in the NYC Public Library system are pulling in close to a million bucks a year even as they talk about cutting services.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      The NYC Library is a huge organization. They deserve that money.

      Blame Mayor Adams for the budget. He paid millions for new radios for his police buddies. The old ones work fine, also… radios? That’s top priority?

        • casual_turtle_stew_enjoyer@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          When you say “their picture”, you mean to say they just don’t like how they are represented on the platform, right? Or do you mean an actual picture of their face? If the latter is the case, then it sounds objectively like y’all were the ones that set the precedent for doxxing. And you should have known they’d be stupid enough to stoop to any challenger’s given level and then some. Just saying.